2024 Year End
O Come All Ye Faithful
Sunday, December 29, 2024
Welcome
Announcements: Potluck and communion Jan. 5th I could use some helpers this week to take down the tree and Christmas décor. If you can help let me know and we’ll set up a time one evening/afternoon.
Call to Worship:
Happy are we who hear the joyful call to worship,
for we walk in the light of God’s presence!
Let’s worship God together—celebrating who he is and all that he has done!
For God is our strength and our protection,
the One in whom we trust.
Let our hearts declare: I will sing about the wonders of your love forever, O God!
I will tell everyone I meet about your faithfulness to all generations!
I will declare that your love stands firm, that your faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens above!
Praise Songs
For the past many years now I like to take time near the end of each year and reflect back over the year as we’re bringing it to a close-to see from a broader view where and how God has been my helper, provider, healer, protector, and giver of all good things. For when we are in the moment sometimes it might not be as clear or easy to see where God is, but when we are through those harder times, or times of waiting, times of uncertainty, we can look back and see oh that’s what You were doing God.
For me there were times of waiting on answers, waiting for clarity, waiting on healing and that waiting can really drag on sometimes can’t it? In that waiting I choose to trust God and His faithfulness to show us the way. We finally got answers for what was causing Riley’s issues while running-that didn’t come until June this past year. We had a direction and hope was renewed! That was met with more waiting and finally we were connected to some experts who are currently working with Riley-that didn’t come until October and then November so we’re still waiting for the full measure of breakthrough and recovery-but there is now a path forward. I still choose to thank God for His faithfulness and trust He is working ALL things for good, in His timing and His way. I have learned to trust there is purpose in all of our waiting and that He is growing us in different ways as we wait and learn to depend on Him.
There are so many areas of our lives we find ourselves waiting-for healing and recovering in our health in some way, for job openings and/or promotions, for the right home to come about, for the right partner to come into our lives, for a marriage to have new life breathed into it, for the gift of a child, for restoration of a relationship with our children, for calm from the chaos, and for loved ones to find their way to the Lord…so many of these things we have prayed for over and over again right here in this Body.
Waiting can be really hard when we don’t have answers can’t it?
BUT if we keep our focus on what we know is true now and forever, that our God is faithful, we can look at times of waiting with a different perspective. We can have peace in our waiting because we know God hears our heart cry; we know He is true and faithful; and we know He is always up to something not only to work through that prayer on our heart, but to work in our hearts and shape us in our waiting to become more and more the righteousness of Christ.
I have come to expect waiting in this life and I don’t fear it any longer. I don’t let myself be consumed with worry about all that I don’t know; I simply release my need and request to my Lord and trust He hears me and He is at work. I try to be present and let Him show me what He wants to teach me in this season of waiting-or someone I love and I pray for that to come about in me and through them.
As we close out 2024, let’s look to His Word and be reminded this morning just who our God is and what He has already done. Then let’s align whatever it is we are yet waiting for with this truth and bring our hearts and minds into right perspective and into worship of our faithful God.
At the beginning of the year we focused on Expanding our Territory into the Promised Land-as in 2023 we focused on Taking Hold of the Promised Land. God was calling us to take hold of more that He offers us, more of the spiritual blessings, more of His truth, more of His love, more of His grace poured out upon us, and to do this we had to allow our faith in Jesus to grow. We had to believe in the promises that are for us, the redeemed children of God.
In Deuteronomy Moses is speaking to the people of Israel across several chapters about the promises of God for them and He’s calling them to remember what God did for them as He brought them out of slavery in Egypt. He’s telling them in the beginning of chapter 7- When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations…. when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, have courage and trust in this promise-for you will be victorious. Remember this has been spoken over you beforehand. When you conquer these nations and you will- make no treaties with them and remain faithful to God. Do not take on their pagan ways.
6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
Do you hear this today-when God brings you into the promised land and drives out “the enemy”. When God delivers them into your hands and you have defeated them…. This is our promise too. When the enemy comes against us, we must remember we are part of God’s army and we have Lord of heaven’s armies at the front fighting for us, and we will surely be victorious-remember who you are in those moments when it looks like you might be overpowered. Remember whose child you are. Remember who you belong to. Remember why Jesus came and was born. Remember… and stand firm in your faith. Don’t give in to fear. Don’t give in to worldly ways. Stand firm in faith and watch and see what the Lord God of heavens armies will do.
Deuteronomy 7:7-9 NIV
7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
- Look Back With Thanksgiving.
Deuteronomy 7:9 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
Do you know this to be true? Do you believe this for your life?
Do you take time to look back over this past year with thanksgiving in your heart for all the ways God has blessed you and been faithful to you? If not, I encourage you to do this in these final days of 2024. Really look across all that has transpired- in the celebrations, in the valleys, in the waiting, in the uncertainty….can you see Him now as you look back? Can you see He was there with you and bringing you through? Can you see He might have been growing you in some way to bring forth greater righteousness and trust in Him? Look with eyes of faith and gratefulness.
Let our hearts praise our God. If you need help we can always go to the Psalms to guide us in how we rightfully and faithfully respond to our God.
Psalm 9: 1-2 I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.
If you are having a hard time seeing how God has been there for you, let this be your prayer:
Psalm 17:7 Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand
If you don’t understand how God works and how His ways are good when they don’t always feel good, let this be your prayer:
Psalm 119:18 NLT Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions.
Before we head into another new year, look back and choose to see His hand upon you. Be thankful, even if you are still waiting for the completion of a promise to come about and a prayer to be answered-be thankful for He is there with you through it all and if He has spoken it, it will surely come about.
- Trust His Faithfulness.
Gratefulness helps build our trust in God. If you don’t spend much time being thankful for who He is and what He has done, your trust probably isn’t very deep, because you are not depending on Him, nor are you close with Him. We must choose and learn to trust in our God. Giving thanks for big and small ways He cares for us help us build our trust.
God is trustworthy because He swore by oath, and by His own great name for there is no name higher or more powerful than His-to uphold His promise.
Deuteronomy 7:8 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
He was true to the people of Israel and did free them from bondage to Egypt. He did bring them into the promised land He swore to Abraham and his descendants. He did send His Son into the world to redeem all who would believe in Him and He did send the Holy Spirit to be our guarantee of what is yet to come and to join us in spirit with God. He did all these things because He is faithful.
Surely, we can trust Him to be faithful for our needs also. If God can do all these things, surely He can provide us with a job, bring healing to our bodies or relationships, find us a partner to share our life with, guide us in our financial difficulties, and so much more… if we trust Him.
When we practice this all the more we can truly receive the gift we sing about in Silent Night that was for the baby Jesus, but also for all of us who believe in Him, to “sleep in heavenly peace”. We can lay our heads down and know even if we are in a season of hardship or waiting, our God is working all things for good and He will not fail us.
Here is what is so incredible… even when we become unfaithful and we all do at some point, in some area of our life- we are not trusting, we are not following, we are not believing… our God remains faithful.
2 Timothy 2:13 NLT If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.
He is who He is and always will be the same. The same God who freed Israel from Pharoah’s oppressive hand is the same God who sent forth His Son to be born of a virgin, is the same God who raised that Son from the grave, and is the same God today and for all our tomorrow’s ever true to who He is; ever true to His covenant and ever true to His nature.
Numbers 23:19 God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
Let us give thanks today and every day that God is not like us. Let us not hold Him through the lens of our imperfections but see Him for who He is. God Almighty.
Even if we are not faithful, we can trust our God to be faithful.
- Persevere in Faith.
So as we head into 2025, the challenge to all of us is to persevere in faith. Faith of who God is; faith in His Word that is true; faith in His promises that will not fail; faith in the oath He swore; and faith in His unfailing love for each of us.
Where have been you been tested this past year? Where have you faced trials?
Have you considered you are still here, still overcoming, and still standing in the hope of Christ? That is much to rejoice in!
Have you considered God might have allowed these trials to test your faith-for only when there is pressure put on us do we truly come to know what faith is, or allow it to grow. Only when all we have is faith, do we learn the value of perseverance, and see this as a gift being worked out in us.
Therefore, let us enter 2025 with a new attitude:
James 1: 2-4 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
This is the kind of faith we’ll be exploring in the new year-one that is maturing to the point we can see the joy of the Lord even in our trials and waiting.
We will persevere in faith when we remember this truth:
Proverbs 3:3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
Conclusion: God promised to expand our territory into the Promised Land. He is faithful to His Word. Look with eyes of faith to see how and where He was doing just that this past year. Let us respond with trust to persevere with faith in 2025.
Ephesians 3: 20-21 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Let’s pray.
Offering: year-end giving. Tax deductible. Thank you for your generosity this year.
Prayers: Norah-cancer is back, Bob-recovering heart attack, Jeremy-another chemo round coming up
Final Praise Song
Final Blessing: Numbers 6: 24-26 The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.
